A variety of devices or structures for the display of photographic art have been devised since the infancy of photographic art. Traditionally, photographic displays have been effected using either a so called print of a photographic negative upon a generally opaque material such as paper, or by reproducing the photographic subject matter upon a transparent or translucent material such as so called slide film, Mylar.RTM., cellulose acetate or the like through which light may be passed in a focused beam so as to effect projection of a photographic image upon a display surface such as a screen, wall, mirror, or the like.
With respect to so called prints, display forms have generally taken the form of flat displays such as framed photographs mounted upon walls, ceiling, floors, objects of furniture, automobiles, and the like. Typically such prints may be "blown up" or expanded so as to provide enhanced visual effects. The degree to which a print may be blown up is to some extent dependent upon the nature of the film employed in effecting the photograph initially.
These prints have traditionally been produced and marketed in smaller sizes particularly suited for display in book-like photographic albums and have from time to time been mounted in special display formats. One such format is the so-called photographic cube.
These photographic cubes in typical format comprise a generaly hollow cubic structure having walls formed from sheet material generally quite transparent in nature. This transparent materials often is a clear plastic such as a polycarbonate, a Plexiglas.RTM. material, or the like, but equally can be of glass. Typically such cubes can be disassembled and photographic prints can be thereby placed behind the transparent surfaces of the cube where the prints are protected from damage yet clearly visible to the eye for viewing. Light for viewing such photographs generally passes through the transparent cube surfaces or sides, reflects from the photographic print(s) mounted within the cube, and then passes again through the transparent material to the eye of a viewer.
In such cubes, the use of transparent or translucent print stock has been discouraged by the need for a solidly opaque surface to effect the necessary reflection of light. In addition, when viewing such a cubic display, only three surfaces of such a cube are generally available for viewing from any particular physical viewer location relative to the cube. Short of elaborate use of mirrors, no convenient manner of viewing all six surfaces of such a cube simultaneously is available to the viewer.
With respect to transparent or translucent photographic reproduction materials, typically such materials require backlighting for adequate viewing, and have found particular favor where employed for projecting a photographic image onto a viewing surface for viewing by a relatively large audience simultaneously. Less frequently, such light transmitting materials have found acceptance for viewing so called slides, film negative sized replications of photographic images, using a personal, relatively small mechanical viewer generally providing a backlighting effect by which the slides may be viewed effectively. Typically such slide based photographic images are viewed in a single dimension, that is only a single photographic image is available for viewing at any one particular time to the viewer.
Systems, structures, and/or devices for the simultaneous viewing of multiple photographic images reproduced upon a light transmitting material could find wide application in the generation of art form and artistic displays and sculpture using the photographic process.